Salah's protégé: Hamza the 'finisher' tempts Flick to top Barcelona's scorers list

Egyptian forward Hamza Abdel Karim started Barcelona's friendly against Basel on the bench, but he came on as a substitute and proved himself once again in front of coach Hansi Flick.

According to "Mundo Deportivo", Hamza keeps producing the numbers that have the German coach thinking about handing him a role in the first-team squad this season.

He was the first international to rejoin the Catalan side, back in training from the very first day of pre-season. He gave up his holiday to do it, despite earning the break after featuring for Egypt at the World Cup.

The rewards came quickly. In the first serious friendly against Birmingham, the Egyptian scored both of Barcelona's goals on English soil.

Udine brought a blank during the triangular tournament, but Sunday saw him back among the goals in Barcelona's penultimate friendly of the summer.

Hamza came on after the break in place of Gordon and slotted into the role of an out-and-out striker.

Four minutes later, he had Barcelona back in front. Karim Adeyemi, scorer of the opener, whipped in a wonderful cross from the left, and Hamza finished it acrobatically.

That took his tally to three goals this pre-season, making him the team's leading scorer. The numbers keep coming, and they could at least earn him a place among Flick's options at centre-forward, whatever happens with the awaited number 9.

The goal carried extra meaning for Hamza. He scored it on the very pitch where his idol Mohamed Salah began his European journey.

Hamza arrived on loan last January from Egypt's Al Ahly and played with the youth team.

Skipping the reserves entirely, the pupil of "Mohamed Salah" was determined to succeed at his dream club. Barcelona duly activated his buy clause, worth just 1.5 million euros plus variables.